Messages - Silversoma

I've always been curious about Red Bull, so maybe I'll try that this week...

I tend to drink 1 coffee a day, sometimes a 2nd in the afternoon if I need it, and I have been known before to use 20+ servings of coffee as a stimulant to stay awake 72+ hours in extreme cases (end of semester deadlines).

But I realize 20+ cups of coffee saturday morning might be a little extreme, and give me a bad tummy ache

I was going to write in June, but I postponed until October, and I am soo glad I did.

About a week before June 14th, even though I had been studying for 2 months, I had only written 10 full-length prep tests, and the last 2 that I wrote were 155's. I really want to score a 160+, and I felt so stressed by my recent scores, that I decided that postponing for a few months would give me the chance to gain the confidence I needed to do better.

Now, I've written 21 preptests, bought and studied the PSLGB, and have had much better scores on the most recent tests (from #30 onwards). Though I may have still done okay back in June, now I feel like there is no way that I will score below 160, which was my goal. I'm not even stressed about saturday, I'm moreso anxious to get the LSAT over with so that I can concentrate on my current coursework, and hopefully pull off straight A's this semester.

If you think that you will be more confident by taking more practice tests and refining your strategy, definitely postpone.

And, if part of why you can't sleep is because you are worrying about stuff, try this trick:

Talk yourself through the "worst case scenario" of whatever it is that you are worrying about, and then convince yourself that it really isn't that bad. For example, my worst-case scenario for the LSAT would be to score a 155 (the lowest score I have ever had, so it's reasonable to believe that I wouldn't score lower than that). What would happen? Well, I would apply to law school with that score, and because of my awesome GPA, and the work experience I plan to have before entering law school, and my strong writing skills and LOR's that I could get, I would probably still get into most schools that I am applying to.

AND... I'm still alive, my boyfriend would still love me, I still have two degrees, I'm still one of the smartest people I know, I am healthy, no limbs missing, my family is alive, I have place to live and food to eat, etc. etc.

But, over the years I've learned to control it pretty well. If I can't sleep, blowing a fat doobie and then playing solitaire on my gameboy in the dark, or reading a book, usually works for me. If you don't smoke dope (a very good sleep aid, BTW), then try a couple of shots of your favorite hard liquor.

BTW, Matt, by no means did I intend to imply that psych is an easy major to be in. That's what the varying percentage scales are for... it is just as difficult in some Chem courses to get an 80% as it is in some psych courses to get a 95%

Ah, I think Matt is just talking about the percentage scales used in individual courses... different profs will use different methods of collecting your grade during the course, and then they tell the class how they derive a letter grade (and thus, a GPA), from your marks in that course.

For example, I've had several profs who grade your exam, and you get a percent. And then, depending on the difficulty of the course, they assign those raw percent grades to letter grades. Because psych courses tend to be "easy", people need to score a 91+ average in order to get an A. On the other hand, in certain physical chemistry courses I have taken, getting a mere 75-80 gives you an A-, and an 81+ gets you an A. That's because in those particular courses, there were exams where over 60% of the class received 50% or below on the exam, whereas in a typical first-year psych course, the lowest grade might be a 75%.

That's how it has worked for most of my science courses. Then, in English, the profs tend to simply assign letter grades to tests and assignments, and the average of those grades becomes your final grade. The whole percentage thing isn't an official scale by any means, it's just a way for profs to account for variances in course difficulty, so that you don't get an entire class that all get A's, or C-'s.

I think it would sort of depend on how much, and what type, of work experience that you have. It seems to me that other factors (such as having a family, having volunteer experience, etc.) might also be considered by admission boards when one is applying as a mature student.

I scored a 172 today, so now I have decided that I am not going to write any more full-length practice tests before Saturday. I want to end my practicing on a high note, and I'm afraid if my last practice test is in the low 160's, it is totally going to psych me out.

So, every day I will write 1 or 2 timed sections, and focus particularly on games sections from recent tests, then take friday off completely (after I'm done my Anal. Chem. lab at 6pm Friday evening, that is).